Field
This disclosure relates generally to the field of wireless communications and more specifically to the system and methods for cloud-based management of self-organizing wireless networks comprising multiple macro, femto and WiFi nodes.
Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content (e.g., voice, data, video, etc.) to mobile user devices. Typically, wireless communication systems are multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple mobile devices by sharing available radio resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, etc.). Multiple-access wireless communication systems are generally divided into three categories: Radio Access Networks (RANs), such as Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), third generation partnership project (3GPP) long-term evolution (LTE) systems, and other; Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), and other; and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth, and other.
A RAN coverage area is typically divided into multiple cells, which are commonly referred as macrocells, each cell having a radio base station, which is commonly referred as a macro node. These macrocells have large geographic coverage and provide wireless access to the RAN to mobile devices. To supplement conventional base stations, additional low power base stations, which are commonly referred as femtocells or femto nodes, can be ad hoc deployed to provide more robust wireless coverage and capacity in indoor environments, such as airports and shopping malls, without consideration for the general RAN infrastructure. In addition, 3G/4G wireless and personal LANs can be deployed by end users in their homes and offices to provide fast and cheap wireless network access.
The current generation of wireless communication systems supports distributed self-organizing network (SON) functions, which automate planning, configuration, management, and optimization of wireless networks. For example, self-configuration functions allow new macro and femto nodes (commonly referred as radio nodes) to automatically self-configure and integrate into the RAN. Distributed self-optimization functions allow radio nodes to more dynamically adjust various access, mobility and handover parameters based on real time observation of neighboring cells and proximate mobile devices. Self-healing functions helps to reduce the impacts of failure of one or more radio nodes by, for example, adjusting parameters and algorithms of neighboring cells, so that these cells can support the mobile devices' of the failing node.
However, most of the current distributed SON functions are preformed by processing data from sensing at the base station level (e.g., macro nodes or femto nodes) and are local in their self organizing impact on the wireless network. The centralized SON functions are limited to policy management of existing radio nodes and impact aggregate parameters across users on radio nodes in the network. Therefore, improvements in the management of self-organizing wireless networks are desired.